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The Omega Directive (episode)
Janeway begins a top-secret mission after Voyager detects an Omega molecule. Summary Seven of Nine awakens at 0600, and logs her activities for the day, which include a diagnostic of the rear sensors with Harry Kim, reading "A Christmas Carol", a workout and lunch. She meets Harry and Tuvok in the Mess hall where the two have been playing Kal-toh all night. Harry is close to winning. Impatient, Seven makes the final move, and walks off with Harry. Walking down the corridor, both are disturbed when the vessel suddenly shudders. Tom Paris informs Chakotay that the ''Voyager'' has dropped out of warp, as a result of a subspace disturbance. Asked to track the disturbance, Tom is surprised when he suddenly loses all sensor readings. All the information on the bridge monitors suddenly disappears, replaced with the greek letter omega (Ω). Neither Tom or Chakotay can access the message the symbol denotes, with even Chakotay's command authorization code rejected. Kathryn Janeway suddenly appears, asking Chakotay not to do anything. She makes the symbol disappear, but no data returns to the monitors. She goes to her ready room, saying instructions will be forthcoming. In her ready room, she orders her doors sealed. Using a level 10 security code, the computer reports to her the data; the Omega Phenomenon has been detected just over a lightyear from Voyager. The computer informs her she is obligated to initiate the Omega Directive immediately - all other orders are recinded. Janeway sighs and begins analysing the particle wave. Chakotay speaks to Seven, B'Elanna Torres and Tom in main engineering. He tells them they'll be following a highly classified order on a need-to-know basis, ordering B'Elanna to modify the shielding around the warp core, and for Tom to modify a shuttlecraft to handle increased temperatures. B'Elanna comments she's heard rumours about an Omega Directive, to which Chakotay asks for speculation to end. However, Seven appears to recognise the term, and isn't surprised when Chakotay tells her that she's expected in the ready room. In the ready room, Seven admits to Janeway that she knows about the Omega Directive, the Borg having assimilated several Starfleet captains. Janeway tells Seven that she has to follow the protocol, and that she cannot tell the crew about it, but Seven already knows. She quickly concludes that an Omega molecule has been detected. Seven initially refuses to help destroy it, saying the Borg have theories about how to stabilise it. She admits 600,000 drones and 29 Borg cubes were lost in the attempt to create a molecule, but insists on studying it - to the Borg, Omega represents perfection. Quickly realising that the sensors have picked up at least several hundred molecules, not just the one theorized, Janeway realises her plan of using a gravimetric torpedo to destroy the molecule may not be enough. She orders Tuvok and Harry to increase the yield of the torpedo and to increase the structural integrity of the shuttle, as well as asking the Doctor for some medication which can be used to treat severe theta-radiation poisoning. Later, she tells Chakotay that by tomorrow, either she and Seven will be returning from a successful mission, or that he'll detect a huge explosion in subspace. If the latter to occur, he would have ten seconds to jump to warp and not look back. Chakotay doesn't accept that and asks Janeway to let the senior staff in on this mission, saying she needs them. She relents. Janeway tells the senior staff that in no uncertain terms, this mission will not be discussed outside the conference room. The Omega molecule is the most unstable and powerful molecules known to exist. It contains the power of a warp core and could power a civilization. Created by Ketteract, a Federation scientist, in the 2270s, the molecule existed for a fraction of a second before exploding, killing Katteract and 126 of his colleagues. A secondary effect of the explosion was that subspace fractures appeared in a region of several lightyears from the space station - it is impossible to create a stable warp field anywhere near the station. Tom heard these instabilities were a natural phenomonen - a cover story created by Starfleet. They'd quickly realised that a small chain of these could destroy a spacefaring civilization, and/or be a powerful weapon. The Omega Directive was issued, and knowledge kept only to those of a rank of Captain or above. The molecule is to be neutralised at all costs. Normally, a specialized squad would be sent by Starfleet Command to do this, but the Voyager crew will have to do this themselves, or they'll never be able to achieve warp speeds again. Approaching the system which the explosion originated, Tom reveals extreme subspace distortions, making warp speed impossible. He heads to an M-class moon with a pre-warp civilization living on it. The research station on the surface is destroyed, but there are a few lifesigns. Janeway, Tom, Tuvok and others beam down to help. Seven of Nine begins working on a chamber which can destroy the bonds within the Omega molecule, utilizing members of the crew, assigning them Borg designations. Harry, initially resisting being called "6 of 10", gets demoted to "2 of 10". Chakotay tells Harry to deal with it, saying: "When in the collective...adapt!" A surviving researcher tells Janeway the Omega molecules in the primary test chamber are still stable. He's managed to replicate 200 million particles. Janeway realises the torpedo won't be anywhere near sufficent to destroy that many, preparing to use Seven's chamber. Tuvok cautions Janeway that they're breaking the Prime Directive with their current actions, to which Janeway announces the Prime Directive has been recinded for the purposes of this mission. Meanwhile the lead scientist, now in sickbay, pleads with Seven not to destroy the molecules. He tells her he attempted to use the molecules' own resonance frequency to stabilise them. He believes he could make it work. When Seven announces Omega will be destroyed, the alien accuses her of being small minded, destroying what she doesn't understand. Seven goes to Chakotay, saying she's modified the chamber to stabilise Omega. She says she's never made a personal request, yet she wants to stabilise Particle 010 (Omega), the closest thing to perfection she's ever seen. She compares it to Chakotay meeting his spirit guides or anyone meeting a god. Chakotay agrees to talk to Janeway. Janeway suceeds at beaming the Omega molecules into Seven's chamber. At the same time, a couple of ships chase Voyager down as they break orbit. The dissolving process is taking too long, to which Janeway suggests that if they get half the molecules destroyed, the modified gravimetric torpedo can handle destroying the rest. Just as Cargo Bay 2 is about to decompress, Seven watches the majority of the Omega Molecules randomly and spontaneously stabilise themselves. She and Janeway leave the bay, and the chamber is sucked into space and destroyed by the torpedo. Voyager jumps to warp before becoming trapped at ground zero, escaping the pre-warp ships. Seven enters Janeway's Leonardo Da Vinci holodeck program, admitting to Kathryn that she's had something akin to a spiritual experience. Background Information *This is the first (and only) time where we have heard someone been given authorization to ignore the Prime Directive. *Seven of Nine comments that at least one Starfleet captain has been assimilated. It is reasonable to assume that the Borg discovered about the Omega Directive from Jean-Luc Picard / Locutus, and the other Captains assimilated at Wolf 359 and in the battle in the Battle of Sector 001 (Star Trek: First Contact.) *Janeway's log entries are encrypted throughout this episode. Links and References Guest Stars *Jeff Austin as Allos *Kevin McCorkle as Alien Captain *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References arithrazine; Borg philosophy; boronite; boronite ore; Dell; Delta Quadrant; duritanium; Flag officer; harmonic resonance chamber; Hickman; Lantaru sector; Omega One; Species 262; Species 263; subspace; Vulcan; warp drive; Samantha Wildman External links Five-Minute "The Omega Directive" Omega Directive, The de:Die Omega Direktive nl:The Omega Directive